Asia

When he served as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Harvard President Lawrence Summers frequently stitched into his opening remarks an excessively hubris-laden assessment of American power. At one such speech, he asserted that the "world has never seen a nation such as the United States that possesses such unrivaled economic might...that the world has never seen a country such as the United States of America that had such a degree of global military power and global reach that a… more

A pattern has established itself in Western coverage of so-called "people power" revolutions. The revolutions themselves are reported on television and on the front page of newspapers, and extensively praised and analyzed on the editorial pages. Distinguished staff correspondents fly in to cover the story. The revolution is described as part of a growing wave of democracy sweeping the region or the world. The latest examples of this treatment have been the Western responses to the "colored" revolutions in Georgia,… more

Will the 21st century be another "American Century" or will it be the first "Asian Century"? A peaceful -- for now -- struggle has been joined.

For the past few weeks Americans have been focused on news from the Vatican. And for the past few years the bulk of "foreign news" has concerned the Middle East. But in the Far East three huge fuses are burning.

First, the prime minister of China, Wen Jiabao, traveled to India… more

Political theorists don't agree on much, but they tend toward a healthy majority on one issue: large, vibrant middle classes spur demands for greater democracy and help sustain democratic institutions.

In recent history, countries that have successfully transitioned to democratic pluralism tend to be those with strong middle classes. South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Mexico and Chile all moved toward greater democracy after developing their economies and building middle classes. The Eastern European states that have shown the healthiest democratic… more

This autumn events in Tokyo led many observers to believe that Japan was ready to restructure its profoundly dysfunctional banking system. These hopes were soon dashed, however, as the "forces of resistance" to economic reform marshaled their resources and persuaded Prime Minister Koizumi to eviscerate the banking program. A mood approaching dejection has subsequently fallen over Japan specialists in that country and around the world.

Robert Madsen contends that the temporary surge in optimism was unrealistic. Not only are the political… more

Celebrations this Saturday of the 50th anniversary of the San Francisco Treaty of Peace, which established the postwar relationship between Japan and the world, will focus on Japan's emergence as a pacifist market economy under the tutelage of its conqueror and later ally, the United States. Little attention will be paid to questions of historical memory or of liability for Japan's behavior during the war. The 1951 treaty, largely through the efforts of America's principal negotiator, John Foster Dulles, sought… more

According to conventional wisdom, Japan's Emperor Hirohito was a man of peace, forced by Japan's militarist elites to support his country's wartime aggression. In his provocative new book Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, historian Herbert Bix offers a dramatic reappraisal of the emperor's wartime role, arguing that Hirohito was in fact far more hawkish and closely involved in Japan's war plans than has been previously acknowledged.

Bix goes on to argue that the post-war whitewash of… more